GK: ISRO TO LAUNCH 30 FOREIGN SATELLITES

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on November 29, 2018 will launch a hyperspectral imaging satellite (HySIS), an earth observation satellite along with 30 foreign commercial satellites from Sriharikota launch centre in Andhra Pradesh.

The satellites will be launched through Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C43) from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

Key Highlights

PSLV is a four stage launch vehicle with alternating solid and liquid stages. PSLV-C43 is the Core Alone version of PSLV which is the lightest version of PSLV.

HySIS is an earth observation satellite developed by ISRO. It is the primary satellite of the PSLV-C43 mission. The mass of the spacecraft is about 380 kg.

The satellite will be placed in 636 km polar sun synchronous orbit with an inclination of 97.957 deg. The mission life of the satellite is expected to be 5 years.

The primary goal of the hyper spectral imaging satellite would be to study the earth’s surface in visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The foreign satellites to be launched along with HySIS include 1 Micro and 29 Nano satellites from 8 different countries.

All these satellites will be placed in a 504 km orbit by PSLV-C43. Out of the 30 commercial satellites, 23 are from the United States.

These satellites have been commercially contracted for launch through Antrix Corporation Limited, the commercial arm of ISRO.

HySIS Mission

The satellite, which can see in 55 spectral or colour bands from 630 km above the ground, will be used for a range of applications like agriculture, forestry and assessment of coastal zones, inland waters, soil and other geological environments.

Being an earth observation satellite, it will also be used by the military for surveillance purpose.

The optical imaging detector array chip in the HySIS satellite has been designed by Isro’s Ahmedabad-based space applications centre and manufactured by its electronic arm, semi-conductor laboratory, Chandigarh.

The hyspex technology is still an evolving science and has become a new global trend.

The hyperspectral imaging combines the power of digital imaging and spectroscopy. It collects and processes information from across the electromagnetic spectrum.

The hi-tech imaging will enable distinct identification of objects, material or processes on the Earth by reading the spectrum for each pixel of a scene from space.